“If you’re me or any of my siblings, you just know him as dad,” says Ned LeDoux about his father, Chris. This week’s #ExploretheWest takes us behind the scenes as Ned honors his father’s legacy.
God Bless Chris Ledoux.. I really miss seeing that ol cowboy. Such a talent. So sad he passed, just a beautiful soul.. He is very missed by his fans. . .
got to see Ned when he came to New Plymouth Idaho and was taken back by how much he looked and sounded like his daddy and was go thankful to hear him sing with just him and his guitar! We got a nice autographed picture that's hanging on the wall and we look forward to see him next year! We will always miss Chris, but his legacy lives on and I'm grateful for that....awesome job Ned, we love ya!
Chris Ledoux was a phenomenal country singer! Such an amazing, and talented singer... Gone Too Soon in his life! God bless you Ned LeDoux for carrying on your dad's Legend!! ❤️
Some of the best Chris Ledoux shows I saw were held at the Crazy Horse Saloon in Santa Ana. The place only held about 250 people so the shows were really packed in. The whole place would shake and the roof practically blew off from the energy of the band and the crowd! So much fun back then. I remember seeing Ned play there with his dad and the rest of the band too. The Crazy Horse Saloon is long gone and so is Chris but his memory and great music live on!🇺🇸
I remember hearing about his liver transplant and was excited to hear he was doing better and then I bought his "Horse Power" album and after listening to "The Buffalo Grass" and "The Ride" I knew he was saying good bye to all his fans. It wasn't long after that the word came of his passing and I remember just sitting there in disbelief of what I had heard. He was one of a kind I got to see him in concert in 1997 and being in Alabama that was a rare event not many people from this area appreciated his style. Thankful for the influence his music had on my life now I have my own stories about my life on the rodeo trail thanks to Chris Ledoux, good ride cowboy....good ride.
Chris Ledoux is one of the greatest singer song writers of all time, his song, Look at you girl, was the wife and my first dance at our wedding... he is missed.
I remember the day after Chris passed the local radio station played most of his songs one right after another. Another country station I listened to (out of Wyoming; I'm from Colorado) played Chris' songs back to back. everyday at the same time. RIP, Chris Ledoux. You are missed!! I hope Ned is at least half the singer you are. I have never really heard him song.
I briefly met Chris when he was peddling his own CDs at the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo at his booth, in 1985. I was in the USAF stationed at FE Warren AFB and I volunteered to help out at Frontier days and I clearly remember seeing him at his booth there. At the time, I didn't know who he was, but a few years later I realized who I had met. That was pretty cool and we miss his music. I got to see Ned tonight here in Grand Jct, CO and it was a fantastic concert. So glad to see him carrying on his fathers music while developing his own. And at times, it was as if we were watching Chris on stage.
A friend turned me onto his music back around 1980. We would jump in his t bird and drive 4 hours to sheplers to buy cassettes. I finally got to see him in Stockton KS just s few years before he passed. Best concert I have ever seen. Now I live close to Ned. Haven't met him or been able to make a show yet, but was really sorry to hear about his little girls passing. I know she's bouncing on Grandpa's knee in heaven.
to ME this is the epitome of character as a person a family that are legends in my book! the whole family the way they've handle being celebritys and ahousehold name AMONG country and rodeo crowd if nothing else!..... and just great people and of course god bless and RIP chris ledoux
hey Ned my husband and I were married for 4 months when he was taken from me horrible timber accident. we listened to your dad on all the back roads. thank you. I just found your music omg made me cry and smile. hoping to get to see you soon
Chris Ledoux is a big name here in Wyoming. Not a single true born Wyomingite doesn't know his name. His music is still respected and loved by everyone. I have another connection with Chris Ledoux apart from being a native Wyomingite. My maternal grandfather passed away three weeks ago this Saturday. And I have few good memories with my grandfather, due to alienation by his wife. But one of the memories I was able to make with my grandfather, was him sharing with me his love for Chris Ledoux. Now, when I listen to his music, I think of my grandpa. I'll always wish that the children my husband and I will have someday could've met my grandpa. But I hope through the memories I have, and through the music of Chris Ledoux, that they can know the kind of person he was. Rest in peace, Chris. And thank you for giving me a way to connect with my grandpa.
My great friend will live on forever! We rode together and I'm a very proud!! IDAHO cowboy to have knowed him! And you lil buddy shall carry on his spirit and your doin a fine job! 👍🤠🤠
What a beautiful transition from her father to a young man Grace with all the talents but still his own he will be always as fantastic and great as his dad
I will never forget meeting Chis t a rodeo in Wyoming many years ago. Just sitting there drinking beers with him behind the chutes. MY dad worked for the stock contractor. One the greatest memories of my life. I was 19 at the time.
i loved chris ledoux his music meant so much to me when he passed i was so sad his music lives on would love to meet his family ned as well i will always love living in the country and being a cowgirl
Shared a table on several occasions with Chris at the Invasion for a burger. Helped him load some feed on his truck once. He got out and sang a song when our band played the Kaycee minnow races...JUst a cowboy...with one hell of a lot of talent.
I did not know Chris had passed. I loved his music and his son and family are a tribute to his memory. Keep the music coming. Someone like me in a little country, here in New Zealand get right into our Country music. Bless.
Man I sure miss Chris, I had tickets to a concert he cancelled because of his Illness and he shortly passed away at least I got my CD's to play loud and proud.
Ned Ledoux will be appearing in Ellensburg Washington, August 31st for the first annual-" Rockin the arena" in the historic Ellensburg Rodeo Arena! Really looking forward to seeing him there , just like his dad rocked it here 20 years ago ! Great music and memories and history in the making!
I was in radio...pry the early 90's, and called Chris's manager/publicist to do an interview. My contact to get through to Chris, was his father, Al Ledoux. I always thought that was pretty neat. As opposed to having a Nashville, or entertainment publicist, he had his father in charge of that.
Seen Chris play at kamper Arena Oct of 2004 in KC Missouri. Can still see the lights flash really bright to 8 sec ride. My 1st concert ever. Plan to go to his grave site someday. He's my favorite singer. Put on neck of a show even being sick. Was on school trip so couldn't get on the arena floor to get closer. RIP Chris. Love to see Ned one day
Chris really was not just a great rodeo rider and country music star, more important we can see proof he was a great dad. I literally cried when the news came out about Chris passing on. Back then I said to myself, they dont make like Chris anymore. Glad to say now I was wrong about that. Keep it Country!!
Chris was the best storyteller and put on the best show. I met Chris on a concert stop away a bar I worked at in Oklahoma. He put on the concert of a lifetime and you would have thought he was entertaining the richest fans in the world. When I was able to actually meet and talk to him, Chris was humble and treated you like you were the president of his fan club. His songs are a huge chunk of my country playlists and I will forever remember him fondly. God bless Chris Ledoux.
I met Ned and Will LeDoux about an hour before I met their dad--in the basement of their Powder River house, in fact--in August 1987. Even then, Ned had his drum set and was telling me he was a big fan of Bon Jovi. I remember being shocked at that. A son of Chris LeDoux, being a fan of Bon Jovi? I had to smile later when Chris came out with "Bang a Drum," singing alongside Jon Bon Jovi. He sure made that guy look like an amateur! So it's dang cool to see Ned doing this now. He sure grew up good.
I met Chris in Oklahoma when he was doing a show. He didn't act like a big star was down to earth and I still have the Horse Racing program from Remington Park he signed. Can't say the same for Trace Adkins
I was blessed to have heard many a CFD night show.. I am a Cheyenne's homegrown Wyomingite.. Chris went to Cheyenne Central High School..a few years prior to me...
Ned AWSOME JOB MY FRIEND IT BE NICE TO SEE YOU AGIN SOON ,I WOULD REALLY LIKE THAT,AWSOME JOB NED. KEEP THINGS GOING,HOLD YOUR HEAT HIGH. BE PROUD .!!!
HE'LL YEAH! Those are my absolute faves from Chris. I'll always remember seeing him at his first show back, in Puyallup, WA. "The night it rained Copenhagen". I find myself listening to Ned more and more as well. Keep me coming.
it was back around 92 or so at new hampshire speedway i heard an explosion of noise that truly swept me off my feet i have been a chris ledoux fan since thank you chris
Much respect Ned to you and your dad and he is missed also my dad was a big rodo man also and grew up listening to Chris still do to this day ur a good man
My heart goes out to you over the loss of your sweet Haven. I had no idea you were living in my area. I loved your dad, saw him in concert at the PBR in Kansas City.
To me Chris Ledoux is the only "real cowboy" to ever "make it big" in the music business. I grew up listening to old-school Ledoux. Two of my first "albums" were "Songbook of the American West" and "Old Cowboy Classics" on cassette when I got my first "Walkman" Christmas of 1984 probably. But I'd heard lots of Chris Ledoux over several years before that on 8-track because my stepdad was a huge Chris Ledoux fan. He and I never did see eye to eye on a lot of things and to say we didn't get along too well would be an understatement and I've probably got "issues" that maybe I wouldn't have if things hadn't worked out the way they did. But we share a love of music and an open-mindedness about music that I didn't realize we shared until much later on when I "grew up" and looked back. He's a "real cowboy" and grew up on horses because his great-grandfather was a cowboy and horse trader and kind of a jack of all trades and lived a very humble and probably "poor" life financially and never could afford to shower his grandchildren with expensive gifts. But he could "horse trade" on real horses and tack and teach people about horses and teach horses about people and give his grandchildren the priceless gift of his time and attention and knowledge as well as maybe a pony or young horse to "break" and he could keep any crooked "horse traders" from dumping "junk" on his friends and family and prevent them a lot of problems and heartaches and pain down the road. That's worth a lot. So my stepdad (or Dad as I call him) grew up a "cowboy" and was the real deal to the extent that someone can be a "real cowboy" in this day and age. He was never a rodeo cowboy and never rodeoed at all as far as I know even though I know he had a desire to get into roping on a "serious" basis but didn't have the time and money to do so because he was a "feedlot cowboy" and that's about as tough as "cowboying" gets. You don't get the good parts of cattle drives (although my mother worked for and then managed a grocery store for a man who owned a decent-sized ranch and cow-calf operation in the Sandhills of western Nebraska where Dad and I got to help on some real cattle drives and brandings - the hard way with me and a few other young kids catching and "throwing" calves as they were roped and brought in to the "fire" - and although I'm 100% NOT "cowboy" and my thing has always been steel and gasoline and diesel fuel and electricity and I'm a born "gearhead and professional diesel mechanic of 25 years I still am grateful for the opportunity to do real "cowboying" and other old-school ranch and haying work like that) and calving a herd of cows out and taking cattle to grass and bringing them home in the fall but you get the pain and misery and heartache of delivering unwanted calves in the mud and shit of a feedlot pen when some "killer buyer" ships in cull cows that haven't been preg-checked or "young "heifers come in bred and you get to ride pens and read bunks day in and day out in all kinds of weather and see nothing but fat cattle and feeder calves and manure and dirt and concrete bunks and "doctor" cattle you know aren't going to make it most of the time and drag the dead and sick out of pens and the "hospital" day in and day out. The real shit work that is unknown to or at least rare to many "real cowboys" working on ranches. Later Dad became more of a ranch cowboy and eventually a ranch/farm manager and he and my mom finally realized their longtime dream of having their own "small" herd of registered Angus cows and are able to ranch on their own in addition to still having their full-time "town jobs". And I know I got my "work ethic" from them and that its probably been as excessive and destructive at times as my other "too much of a good thing" activities, lol. But back to the music thing and "growing up" (I only grow older and I don't think I'll EVER "grow up" or even WTF that means, lol) and realizing how open-minded my dad is and how much we really do have in common that ISN'T the result of him raising me. I later realized how open-minded he was and is when I got old and "mature" enough to start "judging" music by genre and lost that "innocence" of just liking things for what they are and not analyzing and categorizing them that makes things like music so wonderful and attractive to CHILDREN while some adults just don't care about or "get" music as a "hobby". Because I could remember hearing Chris Ledoux booming from the 8-track stereos in his and his younger brother's room at their folks' house and then I could look at and listen to cassettes in his '75 Camaro Rally Sport (some COWBOY CAR, huh? Lol.) and there was BEACH BOYS and JAN & DEAN and SURFER MUSIC. In the cassette player of a Camaro owned by a young cowboy living in southeast Nebraska, lol. Later it was AIR SUPPLY and ELVIS PRESLEY and the FLASHDANCE SOUNDTRACK back in the glory days of MAIL-ORDER MUSIC COMPANY "MEMBERSHIPS" that if you lived in "flyover country" and particularly in WESTERN NEBRASKA or WYOMING or COLORADO outside of a "metro" area was the ONLY way to get "new" music without spending an hour or two driving to a record store in a "big town", lol. What kind of COWBOY listens to the BEACH BOYS and AIR SUPPLY and even likes ELTON JOHN (my "biological father" who to me was always as different as night and day from my stepdad was a HUGE Elton John fan but much more of the "type" of person you'd expect to be an Elton John fan and I don't think my stepdad was maybe "allowed" to own and listen to Elton John when he was younger or maybe Elton John just wasn't that well known in southeast Nebraska to "farm kids" in those days and certainly wasn't PROMOTED being a HOMOSEXUAL and all) which I discovered watching FARM AID on one of our two and sometimes three TV channels besides Nebraska Public Television that came in at the feedlot we lived at west of Oshkosh, NE. I "discovered" that he must like Elton John because when Elton took the stage in typical Elton John style Dad didn't turn off the TV. He didn't show any signs of LIKING the music and maybe he doesn't like Elton John at all but was just letting me watch and listen to my OTHER Dad's favorite artist who I'd also immediately loved mainly because my Dad did and also because I was too young to know what "gay" meant and too innocent and open-minded to care when later on somebody would act horrified if I said I like Elton John and would respond "BUT HE'S GAY!". Another of my "early "albums was Elton John on cassette. I think it was even a Christmas present from Mom & Dad. As were my REAL first TWO albums that I got WITH my first "Walkman" (I had a PANASONIC that kicked the dog snot out of Sonys, lol) that Christmas. What were THEY? Alabama's "Mountain Music" and Def Leppard "Pyromania". What kind of COWBOY lets his stepson listen to DEF LEPPARD and ELTON JOHN and let's him be a gearhead and doesn't force him to become a "cowboy" or at least doesn't KEEP TRYING to make him a cowboy once its clear that's just no who he is? The kind of man that listened to and loved Chris Ledoux as much for his "country & western" side as for his "rock & roller side". The kind of man Chris Ledoux was. The kind of man who may be "backward" in some ways but is more open-minded and free-spirited and "immature" and "irresponsible" when he has the freedom to be who he is than the casual observer would ever imagine.
God bless Chris LeDoux... Awesome show the year before he passed away at the Tulare County Fair... He rode the mechanical bull it was an amazing experience.
Awwwww luv that he woulda been or is hella proud I know Dammm havent heard any songs yet but love this tribute so friggin cool now i'll Listen my favorite song by your dad is "This cowboys Hat" and so true to my beliefs ...you got my heart He's now your guardian angel Sendin... luv luck hella laughter And your heart filled with sunshine,strength and faith Knowin he has no more pain Luv watching bull riding & luv when the bulls are the craziest.....to you and family luv & respect
I was one of the UW students who was fortunate to see Chris at the gym above the old Student Center back about 1978, just before "Wild & Woolly" came out. He is missed by my whole family, and we look forward to you continuing the tradition
Love peggy and the family very much the man touched our hole families soul . My father was a judge in Rodeo and I rode Bulls in a 1999 we went down from Ontario Canada to Cheyenne Wyoming for the daddy of them all and we watch Chris Bareback Jack my Lord did he ever rake him and Copenhagen never forget the man never forget the family Canada cares love you go Big Nate
I use to know your dad when I was young, i was friends with your cousin Matt Ledoux, we use to hang out and ride dirt bikes here in Tucson, those were some fun times
